Unrest hits 2 Sonora mining towns

Both cases pitted Grupo Mexico, the parent company of Tucson-based Asarco LLC, against Mexico's National Miners Union, which is allied with the United Steelworkers.

In Cananea, Sonora, about 40 miles south of the Arizona border, violence broke out Tuesday and Wednesday between members of the hard-line union local, known as Sección 65, and workers brought in by Grupo Mexico to replace them.

Gunfire occurred in Wednesday's clash, and three people were injured, one seriously, Sonoran Gov. Guillermo Padrés said Thursday.

Sonoran police arrested 26 members of the union, one of whom is a woman accused of firing the shots, a Sonoran government official said.

Luis Sánchez Zuñiga, a member of the National Miners Union's executive committee, blamed the replacement workers for provoking the union members and said the police have been consistently siding with their opposition.

Between state and federal police, more than 1,000 officers are in Cananea, he said.

Padrés pointed the finger of blame at Sección 65 in a written statement: "Let's hope that a movement that began legally doesn't become so ugly that it turns into a criminal force."

Farther southeast, near Nacozari, Sonora, hundreds more mine workers and police officers are involved in a similar conflict.

Last month, workers at the refinery and smelter in Esqueda, Sonora, voted to rejoin the National Miners Union, which they had left three years ago in favor of a more company-friendly union.

On Aug. 31, the company fired numerous union leaders, and the federal government sent in a huge police force.

"They've demanded that workers abandon their leaders," Sánchez Zuñiga said.

Grupo Mexico's subsidiary that runs the Mexican mines, Southern Copper, acknowledged the resulting slowdown in a filling Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The copper refinery is operating at reduced capacity using Mexcobre's employees and a reduced number of unionized workers," the company said, referring to the subsidiary that operates the refinery.

Grupo Mexico traces the troubles in both places back to followers of Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, the leader of the National Miners Union, who has been living in exile in Canada.

Gómez Urrutia took a hard-line stance against Grupo Mexico after a methane-gas explosion killed 65 miners in Coahuila state in 2006. That year, the government charged him with embezzling $55 million, and he fled to Vancouver, British Columbia.

But analysts and company officials say he still runs the National Miners Union from afar.

In its filing, Southern Copper said, "As of Sept. 2, 2010, a group of followers of the fugitive Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, a former leader of the Mexican Mining Union, were impeding through violent actions and other forms of intimidation, the ability of a majority of Mexcobre's workers to enter its smelter and refinery complex."

The United Steelworkers, which represents more than 1,000 Asarco workers, supports Gómez Urrutia and the National Miners Union.

Arizona-based Steelworkers official Manny Armenta was heading back down to Cananea Thursday. He blamed government officials and the company, saying, "It's a big mess."

Contact reporter Tim Steller at tsteller@azstarnet.com or 807-8427.